The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed to the empty. The trite objects of human efforts — possessions, outward success, luxury—have always seemed to me contemptible.

You can't blame gravity for falling in love.

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

One always likes to do the things for which one has ability.

I live my daydreams in music.

No idea is conceived in our mind independent of our five senses [i.e., no idea is divinely inspired].

In the middle of difficulties lie opportunities.